Liverpool Gin is embarking on what it hopes will be a major export drive.

The premium brand aims to open markets in Spain, Holland and Norway, as well as the USA and Mexico.

Belvedere licensee John O’Dowd is the man behind Liverpool Gin, which is distilled by micro brewery Liverpool Organic.

Mr O’Dowd said the Spanish and Mexican links were forged at UKTI events during the recent International Festival for Business.

Department store chain El Corte Inglés, the Spanish version of John Lewis, is taking £10,000-worth of Liverpool Gin as part of the Best of British campaign in mid-October, which Mr O’Dowd said coincides with Liverpool’s Champions League tie with Real Madrid: “The order is only worth £10,000, but it is just the first step for us there.”

Samples of Liverpool Gin are also on their way to an American importer of prestige food and drink brands and Mr O’Dowd said: “He operates at the premium end of the market.

“It will be bigger than Spain because it will go into a number of states.”

He said the importer could help develop a market for them: “Every state has its own distribution laws and this guy operates across the whole of the USA.”

Meanwhile, he will travel to Mexico next March for an event organised by British Business Mexico, a joint venture by the UKTI and the Mexican equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce, where he will meet buyers from Mexico’s biggest department store chain, called Liverpool.

He said: “In the US gin is starting to develop and in Mexico, they might not drink too much, but they have a massive tourism market where people do drink gin in the resorts.”

And he said Organic is gearing up to meet demand: “We’re investing all the time in terms of having the capacity.”